Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 93–103

“And he came to his disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter: So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation.” As long as Jesus was with his disciples, they did not sleep; but when he went a little away from them, they could not watch even one hour in his absence. Therefore let us pray that Jesus may never go even a little away from us, but may fulfil in us what he promised, saying, “Behold, I will be with you all days, until the end of the age.” For so we will watch, as he shakes sleep from our soul; without him it is not possible to fulfil the commandment that says: “Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids, that you may escape like a gazelle from the nets and like a bird from the snare.” Yet coming to the disciples and finding them sleeping, he rouses them with a word so that they may hear, in order to say to them, now that they are listening, what he says: “Could you not watch with me one hour?” He commands us to watch, so that while watching we may pray. And he watches who does the works … falls into some dark doctrine. For whoever prays while watching in this way, his prayer is heard. This is what he means by saying, “Watch and pray”: that first we watch, and so, watching, we pray. “That you may not enter into temptation.” This, as many understand it, is as if he said, “that you may not be tempted; but if it so pleases God, submit to God, as you have heard me praying.” But consider whether it is possible rather to understand it thus: that our life itself is a temptation, according to Job; but to enter into temptation, or come into temptation, is to fall into temptation and be overcome by it. And I think that no one comes to Jesus and into temptation at the same time; if he comes into temptation, he does not come to Jesus. For no one comes to Jesus except one whom the Father draws to Jesus, to be raised up by him. So we come to Jesus, so that, even if the tempter persecutes us, and evils from him, we are not overtaken by them, as it is written: “Evils will pursue you, and will not overtake you.” But to the sinner it is said: “Evils will come upon you and overtake you.” “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak”: as your spirit too, Peter, was willing to promise, but your flesh weak to confess. But this must be considered: whether, as the flesh of all men is weak, so the spirit of all is willing; or whether the flesh of all men is weak, but the spirit of all men is not willing, but only that of the saints. So it is to the apostles alone, or to those found like them, that he says that the spirit is willing but the flesh weak; but in unbelievers both the spirit is sluggish and the flesh weak. If, then, it is fitting for Christ to say this only to the saints, it prompts us to inquire how the flesh is weak in others, yet only in those whose spirit is willing. I say that the flesh is weak in one who has no sin, and whose wisdom of the flesh is not strong but has failed; who with a willing spirit has put to death the works of the flesh and reduced the wisdom of the flesh to nothing, so as always to carry about the dying of Christ in his body, the spirit, that is, prevailing in its desires against the desires of the flesh; since the flesh desires against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. In the imperfect these oppose one another; but in the perfect the flesh no longer opposes, but has been put to death, and the wisdom of the flesh in the flesh has been weakened and its desire extinguished, while the wisdom of the spirit lives in it, lives and works. Of this weakness the Lord too says to the Apostle that power is made perfect in weakness, that is, in the weakness of the flesh and of its wisdom. That is why the Apostle says, “For when I am weak, then I am strong.” For each of us becomes strong when the flesh has been weakened … but the power of Christ dwells in it. Hence he said: “Thus I fight, and I chastise my body and bring it into subjection.” For by many chastisements a man makes his flesh weak, advancing in the spirit and putting to death the works of the flesh. This, then, according to this teaching, is what he wishes to say to his disciples: “Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation,” you whose spirit is willing but whose flesh is weak. For whoever is more spiritual and more perfect must be the more careful, lest his great good suffer a grave fall.

“Again, going away, Jesus prayed, saying: My Father, if this cannot pass from me unless I drink it, your will be done.” Now he asks that the cup pass from him, and if not in the way he himself wished, then let it pass in the way the Father wills. Here we will now expound it as far as we can understand, so that with this we may be seen to have expounded what preceded as well. For I think that that cup of the passion was going to pass from Jesus in any case, but with a difference: if he drank it, it would afterwards pass both from him and from the whole race of men; but if he did not drink it, it would perhaps pass from him, but would not pass from men; it would remain with them until it had finished them. He wished, then, first of all that this cup of the passion should pass from him in such a way that he would not taste its bitterness at all, if this were possible as regards God's justice. For when he said, “if it is possible,” he referred not to God's power alone but also to his justice; since, as regards God's power, all things are possible, just or unjust; but as regards the justice of him who is not only powerful but also just, not all things are possible, but only those that are just. But if this could not be done, he preferred to drink it, and so it would pass from him and from the whole race of men, rather than to act against his Father's will by fleeing from drinking it. So, because of the good outcome that was to follow once the bitterness of the cup had been drunk, he prays a second time, saying: “My Father, if it is not possible for it to pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” So it is plain that he wished to drink it. For, comparing the two, it was better that it should pass because he had drunk it than that it should not pass because he had not drunk it. Suppose the Lord had not drunk that cup, and for that reason it had not passed: without doubt the spirits that work sins would not have passed from the human race either, and, fittingly, neither would the punishments due to sins have passed. So it was expedient for all that the cup should pass from him because the Saviour had drunk it, so that all of us who believe in him who drank it may not drink … “and vomit, and cease to be mad.” For as he died for us all, so that death, the enemy of Christ, may pass us by, so for us all, who were debtors to drink for ever, he drank that cup, so that by the very fact that the cup passes from him, it may also pass from us, who do not drink it. Of this cup Jeremiah says: “The Lord God of Israel said to me: Take this cup of unmixed wine from my hand, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it; and they will drink, and vomit, and cease to be mad before the sword which I send among them.” So those who hear the Lord and live according to his word, and have been cleansed through faith in him, no longer need the cleansing that comes through that cup. For as those who have been washed do not need to be washed, because they are clean, being Christ's disciples, so those who are not clean need that cup, as the Lord exhorts them: “Drink, and be drunk, and vomit.” For hear how Jeremiah speaks, or rather God in Jeremiah, exhorting those who need such a cup, since those who need such a cleansing ought to drink it willingly. And to see that God says this to exhort them to drink, consider what he says further on: “And it will be,” he says, “when they refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts: You shall surely drink; for in the city on which my name is called I am beginning to bring evils, and you will be cleansed with cleansing.” And see that after the first prayer he came to the disciples and found them sleeping; likewise after the second he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. I think this means not so much the eyes of their bodies as those of their souls. For he had not yet removed the weight laid on his disciples' eyes, since he had not yet been glorified. And as the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified, so their eyes had not yet been freed from their heaviness, because Jesus had not yet been glorified. So he does not rebuke them, but goes again and prays the same thing a third time, teaching us too by this very example not to give up in prayer, but to persevere in the same words of prayer until we obtain what we have begun to ask.

“Then he came and said to his disciples: Sleep now and rest; behold, he who will hand me over is drawing near.” “Then”: without doubt, after the prayer. And the sleep with which he then commands his disciples to sleep is not the same as the sleep which is written above to have come upon the disciples twice. For there he found them sleeping, not resting; and again he found them sleeping, their eyes heavy; but now he commanded them. For to sleep and rest at Christ's command differs from drowsing against the will of him who said, “Remain here and watch with me,” and who reproached them for their sleep, saying, “So, could you not watch with me one hour?” So he did not contradict himself in saying there, “Watch with me,” and here, “Sleep and rest”; rather, it is so that order may be kept: that first we watch, praying, so as not to enter into temptation, and afterwards sleep and rest according to God's command. Solomon sets this sleep as a promise for those who live well, saying in his Proverbs: “For if you sit down, you will be without fear; and if you sleep, you will sleep sweetly, and you will not fear the terror that comes upon you, nor the assaults of the wicked rushing upon you.” And David, knowing that there are different watchings and sleepings, swore to the Lord and vowed a vow to the God of Jacob not to go up on the bed of his couch, nor give sleep to his eyes nor slumber to his eyelids, and to do this until he found a place for the Lord, a dwelling for the God of Jacob; so that, when he had found a place for the Lord, he might go up on the bed of his couch and give sleep to his eyes, renewing themselves and, after rest, preparing for a new and more divine rising, as usually happens to men in the body after natural and healthy sleep. And perhaps the soul too, since it cannot always bear labours, being created and incarnate, and is not able to keep the good without any pause, will obtain, without any blame, times of rest, which in a moral sense are called sleep and slumber, so that, having rest for a little while, it may rise renewed and be raised up. But whether this will always be so or not, let him inquire more fully who is able to inquire into such things and to understand them from the divine Scriptures, and to speak of them without danger.

“Behold, the hour has drawn near, and the Son of Man will be handed over into the hands of sinners.” It was because of this hour, I think, that he also said to his mother, “My hour has not yet come.” And here too he teaches that the approach of the hour was bringing it about that the Son of Man should be handed over into the hands of sinners. Would that Jesus had then been handed over into the hands of those sinners only! But as it is, I think Jesus is always being handed over into the hands of sinners, when those who seem to believe in Jesus hold Jesus in their hands while they are sinners. And as often as a righteous man who has Jesus in himself comes into the power of sinners who do to him what they can, Jesus is handed over into the hands of sinners.

“Rise, let us go; behold, he who will hand me over has drawn near.” After he had roused them from the sleep we spoke of, he next says to his disciples, “Rise, let us go.” And seeing in the spirit Judas drawing near for the betrayal, though he was not yet seen by the disciples … But I think that “behold, he has drawn near to me” and “behold, he who will hand me over has drawn near” are not the same. For his betrayer was not drawing near to Jesus himself, since he had distanced himself from Jesus by his sins and by the betrayal by which he had planned to hand him over; but he had drawn near to hand over the Son of God, whom he had already betrayed. And all transgressors likewise first betray Jesus, and afterwards hand him over.

“And while he was still speaking, behold, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and elders of the people.” Someone will ask why a great crowd was gathered against him with swords and clubs. According to John, this great crowd was a cohort of soldiers and officers sent by the chief priests. And someone may say that so many came against him because of the multitude of those among the people who had already believed in him, fearing that a great multitude of believers might snatch him out of their hands. But I think there was another reason for the multitude gathered against him: those who thought he was accustomed to cast out demons by Beelzebub supposed that by certain sorcerous and magical arts he could escape from the midst of those who wished to hold him. And perhaps some of them had heard how once, when he was about to be thrown down from the brow of the hill, he escaped the hands of those already holding him, not by a simple human flight, but by another kind, beyond human nature. For this reason too, in Mark, Judas said to the crowd that came with him with swords and clubs: “Whomever I kiss, he is the one; seize him and lead him away carefully.” He seems to have said this maliciously and with a hint, as if to say: unless you hold him carefully as you lead him away, he will escape you when he wishes. And they, taking it according to Judas's opinion, as though Jesus did this and many other things without the help of his Father's divinity, did everything to hold and guard him carefully. Many [are] fighting against Jesus now too, as they did, with spiritual swords, under the appearance of malicious doctrines, and likewise with clubs; but by their plots Jesus is made in every way the better, though for a time he takes their assaults upon himself, so that the sins of those who plot against him may be filled up and the malice of their will against the truth of the only-begotten Word be made manifest. And those who thus fight against Jesus with swords and clubs, coming with various and different doctrines, plot against Jesus [of set purpose]. There are also those who, sent by the presbyters of their own impious people, fight against the word of truth which is in Jesus.

“And he who handed him over gave them a sign, saying: Whomever I kiss, he is the one; seize him. And at once coming up to Jesus he said: Hail … Friend, why have you come?” It is worth asking why, when Jesus had taught openly through every city and village and synagogue, preaching the word of the gospel, so that his fame went out into every region, and he had been made known by face to all who lived in Judea, Judas gave a sign to those sent by the chief priests, as if they did not know his appearance, saying: “Whomever I kiss, he is the one.” That those who had come with Judas to arrest him had often seen him is shown by what Jesus himself says to the crowds: “Have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs to arrest me? Day after day I sat with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me.” Likewise John reports that he said: “I have spoken openly to the world; I always taught in the synagogue and in the temple, where all the Jews gather.” So a tradition of this kind has come down to us about him: that there were not only two forms in him, one in which all saw him, and another in which he was transfigured before his disciples on the mountain, when his face shone like the sun, but that he also appeared to each one according to what each was worthy of; and though he was the same, he seemed to all as if he were not the same. This is like what is written of the manna, when God sent the sons of Israel bread from heaven that had every delight and suited every taste, when, yielding to the desire of the one who took it, it turned into whatever he wished. And this tradition does not seem incredible to me, whether it is meant bodily, because of Jesus himself, that he was seen by men now in one way and now in another, or because of the very nature of the Word, which does not appear alike to all. If this is so, it is possible to find the answer to the question. For even if the crowds that came with Judas had often seen him, they nonetheless needed, because of his transformations, someone to point him out to them who had a more familiar knowledge of him through long life with him, so as to understand the transformations in which he used to appear to his own. This same thing is also indicated by John the evangelist, where Jesus, knowing what was to come upon him, went out and said: “Whom do you seek?” They said: “Jesus of Nazareth.” And he said to them: “I am he.” And they drew back and fell to the ground. You see that they did not recognize him, though they had often seen him, because of his transfigurations. And if someone also asks why Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss, we will give this explanation. According to some, he wished to keep a certain reverence toward his master, not daring to rush upon him openly and shamelessly declare himself his master's betrayer. According to others, he did it for this reason: lest, if he had shown himself to be his master's betrayer, he himself should become the cause of Jesus' escape, since, in his opinion, Jesus could escape by certain secret arts and make himself small. So, in order that Jesus, suspecting nothing of the kind (as Judas supposed), but thinking him a friend, might be arrested unexpectedly, as one unaware, he gave this sign; though Jesus knew already that if he had not wished to be arrested he would never have been arrested, but willingly gave himself into the hands of sinners. But I think that all betrayers of the truth too, pretending to love the truth and using the sign of the kiss as a token of love, betray the Word of God to his adversaries who wish to seize him, clothed in nothing peaceful but carrying warlike swords, insults, and clubs. And the betrayer says to Jesus, “Rabbi.” For all heretics, like Judas, say to Jesus, “Rabbi,” and kiss him as Judas did. To them Jesus says only gentle things, since they are all Judas the betrayer: “Judas, do you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?” And he says to him, reproaching the pretence of his friendship, “Friend, why have you come?” For we know of no good person called by this name in the Scriptures. For to the wicked man not clothed in wedding garments he says, “Friend, why have you come in here without a wedding garment?” And wicked too is he who in the parable of the denarius hears, “Friend, I do you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go. I wish to give to this last one as to you.”

“Then they came up, laid hands on Jesus, and seized him.” Right after the kiss, without any delay, that crowd, perhaps fearing that Jesus would escape from their hands, laid hands on him. “And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand, drew his sword, and striking the servant of the high priest, cut off his ear.” One of those who were with Jesus, not yet clearly grasping within himself that gospel patience handed on to him by Christ, nor the peace that he gave his disciples, but acting according to the licence given to the Jews by the law concerning enemies, stretched out his hand, took his sword, struck the servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear. As John says, he cut off his right ear; John also gives the servant's name, for he was called Malchus. And perhaps what Peter did was a mystery: that the right hearing of the Jewish people was to be cut off because of their malice shown toward Jesus. For even if they now seem to hear the law, they hear with the left hearing the shadow of the tradition of the law, not the truth, since they are servants of a teaching that professes the service of God but does not serve in truth. The mystery of this teaching was … Caiaphas. It seems to me that those who believed from among the Gentiles, all made one people in Christ, became, by the very fact that they believed in Christ, the cause that the right hearing of the Jews was cut off, according to what had been prophesied of them: “Make the ears of this people heavy, and press down their eyes, lest seeing they see, and hearing they understand, and turn, and I heal them.”

“Then Jesus said to him: Put your sword back into its place.” To the one who had used the sword and taken off that servant's right ear, Jesus did not say, “Draw your sword,” but, “Put your sword back into its place.” So there is a place for the sword, from which no one who does not wish to perish, especially by the sword, may take it. For Jesus wishes his disciples to be peaceable, so that, laying down this warlike sword, they may take up another, peaceable sword, which Scripture calls the sword of the Spirit. Similar, it seems to me, is what he says: “All who take the sword will perish by the sword”; that is, all who are not peaceable but stir up war will perish in the war they stir up, so that in them the sword is a figure of war and strife. And I think that all turbulent men who stir up wars and disturb the souls of men, especially of the churches, take the sword by which they themselves will perish; for he who digs a pit falls into it himself, and their trouble will return upon their own head, and their iniquity will come down upon their own crown. But, taking his words simply too, “Those who take the sword will perish by the sword,” it befits us to beware lest we draw the sword on the pretext of military service, or of avenging our own injuries, or for any pretext at all; for this gospel teaching of Christ abhors them all, commanding us to fulfil what is written: “With those who hated peace I was peaceable.” If, then, we must be peaceable even with those who hate peace, we must use the sword against no one. So, wishing, by speaking to one who had not yet learned, to teach us all that he gave himself up willingly for us all, he added: “Or do you think that I cannot now ask my Father, and he will provide me with more than twelve legions of angels?” As if he said: You drew your sword in this way and struck the ruler's servant, as though giving me help; but if I had wished, I could have asked the Father and obtained, not human help, but that of my own, that is, of angels; and not of one, but of more than twelve legions. From this it is shown that, according to the multitude of angels, [after the likeness of the legions] of worldly armies there are also legions of angels of the heavenly army, fighting against the legions of demons that dwell in the tombs. For in Luke too there is a multitude of the heavenly army … If the multitude of the heavenly army consisted of those praising God, and every army is understood to be established on account of adversaries, it follows that that army too fights for God on account of adversaries. Jacob too called a certain place the camp of the Lord, because he saw there an army of angels. And wherever there are those who fear God, around them is a camp of angels; for the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and will deliver them, as the book of Kingdoms reports was the case around Elisha. And attend: do you suppose that the Saviour, as if inferior to the angels or in need of the help of angels, said, “Or do you think that I cannot ask my Father, and he will provide me with more than twelve legions of angels?” Or did he perhaps speak this way in accordance with the opinion of Peter, who wished to bring him help, drew his sword, and cut off the servant's ear? For the angels need the help of the only-begotten Son of God more than he needs theirs. For this reason, what is written, “For he has commanded his angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways,” is not understood as said of the only-begotten Son of God, but either of every righteous man, in the person of Christ, whom Christ bore in his body, or of Christ according to his human nature. Indeed, what it says, “He will deliver you from ruin and from the noonday demon,” in no way fits the Son of God. And what it says, “You will not fear the terror of the night, the arrow that flies by day, the thing that walks in darkness,” fits a righteous man more than the Son of God. So, though he could have received legions, he did not wish to receive them, so that through his patience the Scriptures might be fulfilled which prophesied of him that he must suffer thus.

“In that hour Jesus said to the crowds: Have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs to arrest me? Day after day I sat among you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me.” The sense of what is said in this passage seems to me to be this, as the Saviour says to the crowds: If someone wishes to seize a robber, it is not unfitting to come at him with swords and clubs, because a robber is the kind of man who will dare anything so long as he suffers no harm, and, if he can, is ready to use sword and club against those who wish to arrest him rather than hand himself over of his own accord into their hands. But that I am not such a man, all who are in Judea know: some because they have seen my teaching and my works, others because they have heard of me or have followed my way of life; since, sitting daily in the place of the holy temple, as a place suited to divine teaching, I made known what pertained to piety and to a sound life according to the law of God, and by this I showed that I am peaceable. And that neither your plot against me nor your expedition with swords and clubs has any adequate reason … but now; and were you not appeased when you saw me staying daily in the temple of God and offering myself to all who wished to hear me, so as to join them to myself for their building up, through word and life, toward the blessedness of God? Or did you then not seize me, when you saw me teaching and doing nothing deserving of guilt, but now think me changed, so that you suppose I must be arrested like a robber? But you find no pretext in this either, as if I had turned in my teaching from what I had first set forth, wishing to help people by words and deeds. And see: after he had said to Peter, “Put your sword back into its sheath,” which is patience; after he had restored the ear that had been cut off, as another evangelist says, which was a sign both of the highest kindness and of divine power; then he spoke these words, so that they might be seen to be trustworthy from his preceding words and deeds, so that, if they did not remember his past benefits, they might at least recognize the present ones.